Tag Archives: miniature schnauzer

I can’t believe that we’re in October. …and you know what happens in October, right?!

It happens every year, pumpkin hunting that is. We pack up and head out to Half Moon Bay, pumpkin capital of the world, on a mission to find the perfect pumpkins to gut. Here’s a snippet into some of these year’s memories:

Looking back on our adventure from earlier this week, it’s making me antsy! I can’t wait until we get to gut and carve our haul!

Leave it to us to go on a one night, one day adventure, and I swear we see a good chunk of California. I’m not complaining though; I love exploring places new and old. …and now that I have more time on my hands, it is the perfect time to play!

We started our weekend on a sunny Friday and headed towards Tuolumne Meadows for our last camping trip of the season. On our trek towards the National Park, it was devastating to see so much of the forest that was lost to the Rim Fire.

Seriously, it broke my heart to think that one small little fire burned down more than 250,000 acres of the forest, as well as all of the critters that once called it home. Alas, lessons are learned. Thank you to the firefighters that fought this beast of a forest fire to protect this section of the Sierra Nevadas.

Upon arrival, we set up camp while the pups hung out. Here were some snapshots that I captured at our campsite:

I love the hammock photos! They make me smile from ear to ear. I’m so bummed that I didn’t snap photos of the four of us all huddled up in our tent that night. I guess there’s always next time.

The following morning, we trekked through parts of Inyo National Forest. I had never been further than the park gate on the Tuolomne side, so it was such a sight for me to see how beautiful it is out there.

You can’t tell from the beautiful blue skies, but the temperature at these high elevations were frigid. With the wind chill, it makes it that much colder. Brr.

We continued out to visit the eerie, but beautiful ghost town, Bodie. It’s absolutely stunning out there. The pictures we took do not even do this town justice. I highly recommend putting this place on your list of places to visit in California.

We spent a good amount of time here, and we didn’t even get to see 50% of what is left of this gold mining town. I would totally go back and visit Bodie. It’s one of the neatest historical sites I’ve seen. If you do happen to go late in the season, don’t forget to pack a jacket; the town is situated at a high elevation and with the winds so strong, one can get cold.

After exploring Bodie, we jetted back towards Mono Lake to check out the picturesque South Tuffa. We had to be prompt about walking down to the lake shore because the nearby sky was ready to downpour on us. Here are some of the pictures that I captured on our short, but beautiful visit to Mono Lake:

After a quick stop at South Tuffa, we hurriedly, but safely, rushed back into the mountainside. At this point, it started down pouring, expect it wasn’t rain. It was snow! Yay! When we got back into Yosemite National Park, we made sure to stop and enjoy the cold weather. I love the two pictures below; it totally captures how excited we are about the autumn-ish weather in Tuolomne Meadows.

…and just a few minutes later, the ground looked like this:

We were looking forward to the beginning of fall, and we pretty much got winter, haha! Albeit mighty cold, it was amazing to witness the first snowfall of the season in Yosemite. It’s definitely a memory I won’t ever forget. ❤

Surprisingly, life hasn’t been too stagnant since we closed our doors on Tuesday. As a matter of fact, I’ve been keeping myself busy and entertained. Truly, it’s a wonderful feeling to not have to worry about this or that, and for that, I know that we made the right decision. It’s only been about two days, and I’m enjoying every second of it.

Tuesday was Maui’s birthday. I can’t believe she’s now five; I still remember when she was a puppy and couldn’t even jump up onto the bed. In celebration of her birthday, I had to bake her a chicken and carrot flavored pupcake.

I, of course, made one for Hilo too. They both devoured their cakes within just a few minutes.

On another note, it hadn’t even been a day, and I thought it would be fun to tag along with G down to So Cal. Maui and Hilo agreed, haha. 😉 We spent ample time playing at the dog park and exploring Malibu.

Last but not least, I packed up some of my scrap supplies and had a ball in our suite! Here’s a sneak peek of the layout I created using the Sampler‘s February kit, Simply Sweet:

To see the whole project in its entirety, head on over to the Sampler blog and leave some love.

My 2012 definitely had its fair shares of ups and downs, as well as tears and laughter. Overall, I’d say that it was rather enlightening. Just by testing my limits, I learned so much about myself throughout these past twelve months. Some bad. Some good. The learning experiences along the way, however, have made me a stronger person.

So, with 2013 right around the corner, I thought I’d finally post an entry about some of the highlights from December 2012, considering a month has gone by without any update. December, at least for me, always seems to be a blur. Hmm…? What happened this past month? *Well, maybe if you blogged more, Sarah, this wouldn’t be an issue.*

Holiday festivities consumed most of this month. As I wrote in my previous post, we decorated the tree in a non-traditional way. We, technically just me, wanted to do a purple and orange colored tree. I know, I know. Not very typical, but I thought it would be fun. Turns out, we had a lot of fun with this one. The best part about our 2012 tree was the abundant succulents and air plants that were scattered all over the tree’s branches. Here are some other photos of the 2012 Kee tree:

…and a picture with the pups, of course!

We threw a holiday party for friends, a gingerbread house making party to be exact. Yup, we pretty much were on a sugar high that whole weekend. Unfortunately, I don’t have the pictures of all of our concoctions put together. Looks like I’m gonna to have to bug some friends for the picture of the whole gingerbread village we created.

There was a holiday get together over at the in-laws, too. It was super funny watching everyone do the annual gift exchange. We came home with a cute apron, which I still need to put to good use. As for the dogs, Maui and Hilo were so excited to hang out with their Westie cousins.

We also squeezed in a quick trip down to So Cal. The dogs have learned that the beach never gets old. I wonder where they learned that one from, hehe. 😉

There are hundreds more photos I could share from this month, but I guess I’ll leave it at that. It would take me, oh you know, A WHOLE MONTH to blog about all of the stuff that happened in December. Doh! This is why staying up to date with the blog comes in handy.

Wishing our families and friends a Happy New Year! 2013’s gonna be a great year. I can feel it. 😉

We were in charge of hosting Thanksgiving this year, turkey and all. Everything turned out as planned, and everyone enjoyed dinner (at least I hope they did, hehe). Personally, my favorite part was the wonderful company of family. Well, and of course, all of the delicious food. I created a pretty extensive menu because I wanted to make sure there was enough food for our fall harvest. Below are some of the photos that I managed to capture during the holiday.

The day after Thanksgiving marked the the shop‘s anniversary! I can’t believe how time flew by this year. I’m so thankful for all of our customers’ support and business these past two years; we wouldn’t have come this far without all of you. So again, thank you.

As for me, I took most of the day off to set up our Christmas tree. With everything going on from Thanksgiving up until the year’s end, I figured that the weekend after Thanksgiving would be perfect timing to go out and get the tree.

We made a trip out to Half Moon Bay to pay a visit to Santa’s Tree Farm & Village to get our tree. …and you know what’s even more awesome then getting our tree?! I got to be a creeper and take a picture with Santa, haha! Plus, there was no wait or line at all. Heck, yeah!

As soon as we got home, we trimmed the tree and set it up. Did we finish decorating it that day?! Absolutely not, haha! It would’ve been a miracle if we had though.

Eventually, we ended up finishing the tree. …but before finishing the tree, we headed up North to celebrate my uncle’s 40th and Nat’s 25th!

I love that Nat’s party was all about Christmas crafting. A day spent crafting? I couldn’t say no! We spent the day making Christmas ornaments for their tree. At the end of the day, Sean and Nat finished decorating. I love all of the personal touches; it’s so cute!

As for our Christmas decorations, just like every year, we had a decorating theme. We decided to go non-traditional with a purple, orange, and gold Christmas tree. Plus, we thought it would be unique to have succulents and tillandsia plants on the tree. I’m in love with the colors and all of the sparkles.

…and I love our mantle, too. We kept to the same theme as our Christmas tree.

With all of the greens around the house, it smells so Christmas-y. I love it. It makes everything seem so homey and warm. All I need to do now is finish making our holiday wreath. Well, that… and start my holiday shopping, haha. Oh, and finish creating my December Daily album. *sigh* So much to do!